The present invention relates to improvements in transporting manufactured goods, and more particularly to improvements in transportation where wooden pallets are replaced by fiberboard slip sheets.
Manufacturers of packaged goods of suitable size, weight and durability have in the past stacked them in appropriate configurations on wooden pallets for shipment and storage. This has long proved to be an effective and efficient method. However, it is currently evolving that in many situations the heavy, bulky, costly wooden pallets are not necessary and can be functionally replaced with fiberboard sheets called slip sheets.
While the cost savings of the slip sheet method are clear, an operational problem is presented where loads are partially obscured in rail car doorways. This was not a problem with wooden pallets but is the source of considerable inefficiency when using slip sheets. With the wooden pallets, a lift truck fork can be inserted into a corner end of a pallet and the load shifted laterally into position for full access by the fork truck. With slip sheets, on the other hand, it has been common practice to manually repile the cases from the inaccessable load onto another sheet. Typically, four loads out of fifty-six may require this manual repiling before the lift truck with its slip sheet attachment has sufficient access to the other loads.